Wuxi Classic 2012

TeddyT · Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 9:48 am Post subject: Wuxi Classic 2012

Amazingly the new snooker season is already under way with the inaugural Asian Players Tour Event hitting the final stages in Zhangjagang in China.

The tour is deeper than ever this season and the first full ranking event, the Wuxi Classic, begins on the 25th June.

Snooker fans will have to get used to not seeing the names of Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stephen Hendry in the list of entrants but a somewhat surprising additional missing name for this event is John Higgins. I just wonder if this also signals the start of a wind down in the four-times World Champion's career?

Mark Selby starts the 2012/13 season at the top of the World Rankings but with the vast number of tournaments now in place and rolling ranking system we could a see plenty of changes in the rankings in the next twelve months.

This the first year the Wuxi Classic has been recognised as a full ranking event. The event took place in 2010 and 2011 as non-ranking event and before that in 2008 and 2009 the event was known as the Jiangsu Classic.

Wuxi Classic winners and final scores:

Ding Junhui has made the final in three of the four years this event has been on the calendar and Mark Selby has win and a runner-up spot.

Wuxi Classic 2012

Looking at the draw for the 2012 Wuxi Classic it could make sense to concentrate on the bottom half of the draw as less of the big names seem to be in that half. Judd Trump looks to have an appealing draw but despite his win in the 2011 China Open I'm not convinced that the World Number two is that keen on playing in China and at odds of just 5/1 he is probably best swerved. No one else in that half of the draw really appeals so I'm plumping for Stephen Maguire from the tougher looking half of the draw.

Maguire ended last season by getting to the Semi-Finals of the World Championship and had a good overall season winning one event and getting to the final in three others, including the China Open. Maguire is a 16/1 shot for this event, around the same price as Shaun Murphy, Mark Allen and Mark Williams. Considering the way Maguire ended last season I'm surprised he is not shorter than those three players and he should be nearer the 10/1 mark and looks a decent bet at 16/1.

Micko70 · Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 10:51 am Post subject:

Interesting stuff.

Last years event only had 12 players in it, 4 of those were from China which left 4 non Chinese to play the Chinese players in round 1 and 4 players waiting to play the winners of those matches.

Mark Selby only had to win 3 matches to win the event, whereas this year we have 32 players (excluding wild card round) and the winner will have to win 5 matches and 31 frames to win the event.

Mark Selby could well play Shaun Murphy and Neil Robertson could play Stephen Maguire in the quarter finals in the tough top half, the bottom half looks a lot easier and we could possibly see Mark Williams playing Stephen Lee & Matthew Stevens playing Judd Trump in the bottom half if all the top 8 seeds get through that is.

Judd Trump is a stand out from the bottom half and at 5/1 he is a decent bet and ticks all the boxes for me as the stand out player in the bottom half, even an ew bet makes a profit if he reaches the final
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Micko70 · Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 11:13 am Post subject:

Not actually sure if Judd trump will be playing in this event, this is what he tweeted on Tuesday 19th "Struggling to get a visa for china on Saturday, not good."
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TeddyT · Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 11:38 am Post subject:

Some interesting match-ups in the first round of the Wuxi Classic:

Matthew Stevens v Joe Perry
25th June 07.30

Surprisingly the head to head score here is 6-5 to Perry with the Cambridge man winning the last three match-ups, including a 5-1 victory in China.
This will be the season opener for both players and therefore this could be a tricky game to call but Stevens started slowly last season only winning one match in his first two tournaments whereas Perry started like a train making the final of the first PTC event only losing out to Ronnie O’Sullivan.
In those circumstances it could be worth chancing Perry at 11/8 to start quicker than Stevens again this season.

Selection: Perry @ 11/8 Walkover for Perry

Mark Selby v Barry Hawkins
25th June 12.30

The frankly disappointing Mark Selby will be keen to make amends for the 10-3 drubbing he received from Hawkins in this year’s opening round of the World Championship when a neck injury was bothering the man from Leicester. Hawkins holds a 3-2 head to head verdict over Selby but world number 22 Hawkins has lost more games than he has won on his visits to China. Compare this to Selby’s record of a win in the Shanghai Masters of 2011 and two other appearances in finals whilst playing in that country and it’s easy to understand why the bookies make Selby a 4/9 shot.

Selection: Selby @ 4/9 Selby Wins 5-2

Stuart Bingham v Peter Ebdon
26th June 07.30

4-4 in head to head meetings but Bingham has won the last three games with no victory for Ebdon since 2006. Bingham won 5-3 in Round One of the Shanghai Masters in their meeting in 2008 and is coming into this event off the back of a tournament victory at the first APTC event in Zhangjiagang where he beat Ding Junhui and Stephen Lee en route to lifting the trophy.
Ebdon lost 4-3 in the first round in that event to Xu Xinjian and despite Ebdon’s overall excellent record in China Bingham’s early season form should give him the edge and he looks a decent bet at around 8/11.

Selection: Bingham @ 8/11

Ding Junhui v Mark Davis
26th June 12.30

Ding will be a banker to many people but his record in his home country is so unpredictable I wouldn’t trust him to beat me at odds of 2/5.
Davis is approaching the veteran stage at the age of 39 but was in decent form in 2011/12 with victories over the likes of Robertson, Maguire, Trump and Higgins throughout the season so he would not be scared of taking another big scalp. Davis’ odds of 5/2 are nearly appealing but this game is probably best left alone for betting purposes.

Selection: NO BET

Mark Williams v Tom Ford
27th June 07.30

Unfortunately Williams has shut his twitter account down so we can’t be sure how he is feeling about this trip to Asia but his previous great record out there seems to be going to pot and I would be keen on giving the improving Ford a chance against the grumpy Welshman. 11/5 about Ford looks well worth a bet.

Selection: Ford @ 11/5

Judd Trump v Dominic Dale
27th June 12.30

Trump must be Barry Hearn’s big hope of pulling in the viewers in the seasons to come if O’Sullivan stays in self imposed exile but things might not be that straightforward for the 22 year old Trump. If his Twitter postings are anything to go by this is a young man living life to the full (and good luck to him) but how focused can you be on practice etc when you are 22 and have money and opportunity? I remember seeing one twitter post Trump made about one trip where he made the quarter-finals in China ‘not being worth the money’ so I will be very interested to see how he gets on in 2012/13. In fairness, he only lost three matches out of twelve in China in 2011 and 2012 including taking the China Open in 2011 and Dominic Dale shouldn’t prove too much of an opening problem but with apparent problems obtaining a visa for Trump to get into China, I’d like to see how the young man is playing before including him in any bets.

Selection: NO BET

drobgod · Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 11:50 am Post subject:

Hi Teddy

When did any of the players last play competitive Snooker??

Recent form is probably more important than anything else at the moment.

TeddyT · Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 11:54 am Post subject:

drobgod,

Quite a few of the above played in the first Players Tour Event last week in Asia:

http://www.snooker.org/res/index.asp?event=226

I must admit I didn't realise my outright selection for the Wuxi (Maguire) was in that event and got beat 4-0 by a Chinese amateur!

drobgod · Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 12:20 pm Post subject:

Right I'll have a look and post my selections later.

I like the Snooker, but must admit I hadn't realised what with the Euro's and Royal Ascot that the season had started.

drobgod · Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 12:49 pm Post subject:

Ding Junhui would have to be on anybody's shortlist to win this tournament surely. He won the event in 2008, was a beaten finalist in 2009 and 2010 and in 2011 lost 6-5 in the semi-finals to eventual winner Mark Selby.

He also won a few matches last week in a Players Tour Championship event before losing 4-3 to eventual winner Stuart Bingham so his game is at least in fair shape. Outright odds of 10/1 don't look too bad to me.

Tom Ford will be my second selection. With the season hardly underway games under your belt could be an advantage and he seems to have been pretty busy. A 5-0 win over Barry Pinches in qualifying for this event was impressive and he also won his qualifier for the Australian Open recently.

He faces Mark Williams in the first round and if he beats him Mark Allen. Both of those players have given off negative vibes about playing in this part of the world before so look beatable. Odds of 100/1 are appealing about a player that looks set to break into the top sixteen this season.

TeddyT · Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 10:23 am Post subject:

For anyone thinking of getting stuck into Mark Selby to beat Barry Hawkins it still doesn't sound like he is 100% fit so perhaps best to hold fire:

http://www.markselby.info/viewer.html?itemid=48163&listingid=12957&feedid=18615

TeddyT · Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 2:34 pm Post subject:

Selby fairly comfortable in the end with two century breaks on the way to a 5-2 victory over Barry Hawkins.

Can't say I'm a fan of the glove though - reminds me of Alvin Stardust!

Micko70 · Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 12:16 am Post subject:

drobgod · Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 11:08 am Post subject:

Think I'll have to wait for the season to get going a bit. My two punts were shocking!!